Whitman wrote a rather lengthy update on the Kansas situation for Stearns, focusing on the political machinations of the previous few and the uncertain situation created by the Lecompton debate. Of territorial leadership, Whitman observed: "While Kansas is blessed with many of the truest men of the age, men who are fully up to the emergency, she is also cursed with some of the most unprincipled demagogues that ever afflicted any country." There was much confusion and disagreement about the best course of action for free state men to take, now that many acknowledge the death of the Topeka movement. He then turned to the work of the Minneola/Leavenworth Constitutional Convention, March 1858.

The current URL is http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=show_document&document_id=100481&SCREEN_FROM=keyword&selected_keyword=United%20States.%20Congress&startsearchat=0.